New York Yankees (NFL)
The New York Yankees were an American football team , which first played in the newly formed American Football League (AFL) in 1926 and in the National Football League (NFL) from 1927 to 1928 .
prehistory
In 1926 , Red Grange , who played for the Chicago Bears in the NFL , was considered the top player in the league. With his services, Grange ensured full football stadiums and was by far the highest-paid player in the league. In the same year he played with a team he had put together against the NFL team of the New York Giants in New York City in front of 73,000 spectators and thus saved the Giants from ruin.
In particular, the manager of Grange CC Pyle tried to capitalize on its popularity and asked the Bears team owner to participate in the club and raise his wages accordingly, from which he would of course have benefited. George Halas , co-owner of the Bears, flatly refused. The then directed by Pyle to the NFL request to award another franchise in New York , had to be rejected by the league, since Tim Mara , owner of the New York Giants had the sole right of representation in New York. The compromise proposal offered by the NFL to settle the newly founded team in Brooklyn was rejected by Pyle . Pyle rented Yankee Stadium and set up a new league - the American Football League.
American Football League (AFL)
The American Football League ( AFL ) consisted of nine teams, including the former NFL team the Rock Island Independents . Pyle owned two teams, the Yankees and the Los Angeles Wildcats . The economic success of the newly founded league failed to materialize. While the Yankees and Philadelphia Quakers played regularly in front of tens of thousands of spectators, the attendance figures of the other teams remained far behind these numbers. A game between the Wildcats and the Cleveland Panthers set a minus record - only 1000 spectators wanted to watch the game. The team from Philadelphia became champions of the league . The unofficial title of runner-up went to the Yankees trained by Ralph Scott . Two weeks after the end of the game round, the Quakers wore a friendly against the Giants, who had ended the 1926 NFL season in seventh place in the table. The game ended in a 31-0 defeat for the Quakers. Although other top players such as Harry Stuhldreher , Wildcat Wilson or Ray Flaherty ran up for the AFL team in addition to Grange , the economic base was not sufficient. After the 1926 season, the AFL had to stop playing.
National Football League
After the 1926 season , the NFL was also in a state of upheaval. Ralph Scott remained the team's coach. From the former 22 teams, eleven were left. The league decided to give a vacant license to the Yankees, where Grange was still under contract. He was still a "crowd puller". The compromise required to accept the Yankees in the NFL meant a serious economic disadvantage for this team. The number of their home games was limited to four games on intervention by Mara. To make matters worse, Grange was unable to play due to an injury in 1928 and returned to the Chicago Bears after that season. After the 1928 season, in which Dick Rauch had replaced Scott as coach, the Yankees therefore had to stop playing completely.
Members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame
Other well-known players / coaches
- Bo Molenda
- Thick smoke
- Ralph Scott
Web links
- History of the AFL (PDF file; 88 kB)
- Annual stats for the New York Yankees in the NFL